A foundational principle of the Austin Tennis Academy culture is giving back. The staff works to surround all students with opportunities to participate in and contribute to the world around them. Last week, ATA College Prep and recent Notre Dame graduate Josh Hagar joined Academy practice to tell his story of spearheading the Playing For Glimmer Campaign, while urging the next generation to step up and get involved.
“No program I’ve ever been a part of anywhere in the world has something like this where they acknowledge where they are and try to do something to give back,” explained Hagar, who is now playing tennis professionally. “I’m here to talk to all of you about kicking off this year’s campaign.”
ATA has set the goal to raise $100,000 to go towards a new school and 3 new water wells in the villages of Gondar. This is the next step in a pledge ATA CEO Jack Newman made to A Glimmer of Hope about 12 years ago to raise $1 million for those most in need in rural Ethiopia. The campaign recently surpassed $600,000 of the $1 million goal.
Santiago Montoya, an ATA alum and current part of the Glimmer team, explained how every dollar makes a difference.
“Ethiopia is around 100 million people, 80 million live outside of the city. 30 million of those are living on under $1 per day,” Santi said. “Those are the people we are helping.”
By partnering with Glimmer, the community will send 100% of the money raised to these school and clean water projects.
“The power of clean water – combined with a quality education – means that hundreds of children will have the opportunity to thrive. The projects funded by the Austin Tennis Academy will make an immediate and lasting difference as part of Glimmer’s work in the Villages of Gondar.” – Glimmer.org
After introducing Josh, Coach Newman closed the discussion by again urging each Academy player to consider participating.
“My goal is that everyone has a campaign page,” Newman said. “Whatever the dollar amount you raise is immaterial. I would like each of you to get engaged and do something.”
Take a look at the overall ATA campaign page for this year by clicking here, and scroll through some of the campaign pages started by ATA students towards the bottom.